


Scully's Journey 6: Silver Tongued Devil

by spookyawards_archivist



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-09-21
Updated: 2003-09-21
Packaged: 2019-04-27 06:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14419563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookyawards_archivist/pseuds/spookyawards_archivist
Summary: During a kidnapping case, Scully tries to come to terms with her father's death.





	Scully's Journey 6: Silver Tongued Devil

**Author's Note:**

> Note from alice ttlg, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Spooky Awards](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Spooky_Awards), and was moved to the AO3 as part of the Open Doors project in 2018. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are the creator and would like to claim this work, please contact me using the e-mail address on [SpookyAwards' collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/spookyawards/profile).

 

Scully's Journey 6: Silver Tongued Devil

## Scully's Journey 6: Silver Tongued Devil

### by ML

February 8, 2003  
Title: SJ6: Silver Tongued Devil  
Author: ML  
Feedback: always welcome at above email addy Distribution: Yes to Ephemeral, Gossamer, but if you haven't archived my stories before, please drop me a line and let me know, and leave headers, etc. attached. Thank you! Spoilers: Beyond the Sea  
Rating: PG   
Classification: Vignette  
Keywords: Post Episode  
Summary: During a kidnapping case, Scully tries to come to terms with her father's death. 

Disclaimer: These characters are not mine, they belong to Chris Carter, TenThirteen, and Fox Broadcasting. I am using them only for recreational purposes, I mean no infringement, I'm making no money. 

* * *

Scully's Journey 6: Silver Tongued Devil by ML 

December 26, 1993 

Mom and Daddy are coming to dinner tonight for the first time since I've been partnered with Mulder. I've been home for dinner a number of times, but it's really hard to get Daddy to go anywhere since he's retired. He says he's traveled enough for a lifetime. Mom just rolls her eyes; she wants to do some traveling now. She says she's working on him, and if he won't go, she'll go without him. 

Somehow I doubt that. Mom has been looking forward to Ahab's retirement for too long. I think it's more likely that he'll get restless and change his mind. Old habits die hard. I told Mom I give him a year at the outside, and then they'll get a Winnebago and I'll never see them. 

Mom just laughs and rolls her eyes again. 

I am a little nervous about tonight. Daddy still hasn't quite come to terms with me being in the FBI. He always asks punctiliously how the job is, but only when prompted by Mom. After making his initial objections and letting me know he disapproved of my choice, he grudgingly acknowledged I had the right to make it. He hasn't said much about it since. 

I understand that part of it is protectiveness toward me. Part of it is his personal disapproval of the FBI. When I began teaching at Quantico, I think he was relieved. He most emphatically did not like the idea of me getting a partner and going out in the field. I wouldn't put it past him to have done some checking up on Mulder when I was first partnered with him. He certainly hasn't asked me much about him, though Mom always asks, "How's your partner?" when we get together. I'm pretty sure Ahab gets all his information from Mom. He's certainly not getting it from me, though if he asked, I'd tell him what I could. 

I almost invited Mulder over tonight, so that they could meet him and see that he's a good man -- especially Ahab, who I know still worries about my decision. And I will want them to meet him, someday. Now probably isn't a good time, with the job and the partnership so new. If Mulder started explaining about the job and his beliefs, it might just make matters worse. I think I need to let them get used to the idea of me as an FBI agent first. 

Melissa and I used to bait Ahab when we were younger. "What if I became a..." and we'd name all sorts of non-traditional jobs. Ahab always answered the same way, as did Mom: "As long as you do a good job, and you're happy, then it doesn't matter what you do." 

I realize now that he was probably coached by Mom to say that, knowing that forbidding a path makes it all the more attractive. Unfortunately, from Ahab's point of view, it backfired. 

I don't think it matters to Melissa one way or another. She's always been one to speak her mind and do what she wants, and approval or censure has never mattered to her one way or another. Mulder's like that as well. Sometimes I wish I could be that way, too. That I could just not care what others think. 

Anyway, life goes on. I enjoy my job, and though it would be nice to have Daddy's full approval and support, it's not essential. He'll come around eventually when he sees how committed I am to it, and that the work is just as important as being a doctor. 

XxXxXx 

December 27 

Ahab's gone. 

It happened very quickly, Mom said. 

When she called me, I think I was dreaming about him. I woke up and he was sitting in the chair opposite me, speaking to me. I couldn't hear the words. Then the phone rang, and when I looked again, he was gone. 

Mom was on the other end of the phone, telling me what I never wanted to hear. 

I can't believe it. He just retired. Mom and I were teasing him about buying a big motor home at dinner last night. 

I went to Mom right away, of course. I spent the rest of the night with her. Today we did all the calling and all the other necessary arrangements. 

The boys and Melissa won't be making it for the funeral. Mom says Ahab didn't want anything elaborate anyway. We'll have some kind of memorial service when the whole family can be together. She's already made arrangements for cremation, and the ashes are to be scattered in the bay, not far from the shipyards. I suggested Arlington, and offered to make the calls, but Mom said Daddy wouldn't want that. 

"He was a man of simplicity," she said. "He just wanted to get things done." 

She's right. Her words remind me of the comment he made at dinner last night about my Christmas tree and decorations still up the day after Christmas. He'd always wanted everything down and back to normal as soon as possible. Not that he didn't enjoy Christmas, but there was a time for that, and then a time to get back to work. 

I know what he means. I have three days of bereavement leave, and more if I want it, but I want to get back to work. Getting back to normal is what I need right now. It will help me more than anything else. 

That's tomorrow. I still have tonight to get through. 

I can still hardly believe it. Yesterday, it seemed that we had all the time in the world. Now I'll never know if he might one day be not just reconciled to my career choice, but proud of me for my accomplishments and for sticking to my decision. I looked at last night's journal entry, and I was so flip about needing Ahab's approval. Of course it was just as important yesterday, but I was confident that eventually he'd come around. Now that I'll never have the chance to earn it, I seem to need it more than ever. 

I realize that's not very rational. I'm operating on very little sleep right now, and I tell myself that things will look different in the morning. 

I should be writing about my father, not about my own regrets. "Water under the bridge, Starbuck." 

Will I ever get over missing him? Will I ever stop thinking about what he might say in a given situation? Will I always hear his voice in my head, giving me advice, cautioning me? 

Ahab was not a man to wear his heart on his sleeve or to lavish praise on anyone. He had very high standards and I always strove to meet them. His approval, more than Mom's, was what I worked toward. 

Was he trying to reach me last night before he died, or at the moment of his death? That can't be possible. If I were a psychologist, I'd probably know the clinical term for the phenomenon. I could ask Mulder, he'd know. 

I can never tell Mulder what I thought I saw. I just can't. 

I can't keep dwelling on this. Nothing I can do or say will bring Ahab back to say the words I want to hear, no matter what I imagined last night. 

XxXxXx 

December 28  
Raleigh, North Carolina 

It's been a very long day, and it's not over yet. 

Mulder was surprised to see me this morning; he wasn't expecting me back in the office so soon. He offered me his sympathy, and in fact was very tender and frankly sort of personal toward me. It was weird. I don't recall that he's ever called me by my first name before. Truth to tell, it kind of put my back up. I don't want to be treated like a fragile flower, damn it. But when he touch my cheek, and I saw such sympathy in his eyes, I couldn't be mad at him. 

He tried to talk me out of coming with him. I told him that I needed to work. He seemed to understand that. I know he understands loss. 

Anyway, we're down here on a case, having to do with a man whom Mulder helped put away. He claims psychic ability, which, surprisingly, Mulder refutes. 

The man's name is Luther Lee Boggs, and he's due to go to the gas chamber in a week. I'm sure he'd say anything to keep that from happening. 

Somehow he claims knowledge of a recent kidnapping case. Mulder is sure that there's an explanation for this, and not a supernatural one. 

It was fascinating to watch Mulder in action with Luther Boggs -- he was the consummate interrogator, unruffled, unrelenting. Boggs put on quite a show for us -- switching voices and personas like slipping in and out of a pair of shoes. I've never seen anything like it. But Mulder was never fooled, not for a moment. I got a glimpse of what he must have been like when he was with the BSU. He tricked Luther into revealing that his so-called psychic ability was bogus. 

Of course, I didn't believe it either. 

And then, as we were leaving the room, Boggs started to sing "Beyond the Sea." 

Startled, I turned back and saw my father's face, and heard his voice saying tenderly, "Starbuck." 

When I turned back again, it was Boggs' face once more. He asked, "Did you get my message, Starbuck?" 

I couldn't tell Mulder why I was so upset. He knew Boggs said something. How could I explain to him what I couldn't quite believe myself? I couldn't hide my agitation from him. All I could say was, "It's my father," and I knew Mulder would assume that I was upset for that reason alone. I let him assume. 

I really believed that it was true. After all, I'd been thinking about Ahab on the trip down. I was still mulling over what Mom said at the services earlier. 

My resolve broke at the ceremony, and I asked Mom if Ahab was at all proud of me. She looked at me and said simply, "He was your father." 

That phrase could be interpreted in any number of ways. I'm not sure which way Mom meant it. 

Mulder suggested I go back to the hotel -- it was already pretty late, but he decided to stick around and see if he couldn't get more information out of Boggs. 

I was glad of the excuse to leave. I wanted to be alone to try and process what happened, to make sense of it if I could. 

Then on the way to the hotel, I saw the landmarks that Boggs mentioned. I did a stupid thing in investigating without backup, and I deserve to be reprimanded for that. Now I know I was already exhausted, and not thinking clearly, but that's no excuse. 

I waited until the cops came, and made my report to them. When I heard Mulder was on his way, I came back to the hotel. I could plead exhaustion, but the truth is I couldn't face seeing Mulder at the crime scene. Not after what I did. He's going to be terribly disappointed in me. 

I haven't been completely honest. Not to Mulder, and not to myself. I even withheld the truth on the police report. 

No, I have to face it: I lied. As lies go, it's a minor one, but it feels awful all the same. Ahab wouldn't have put up with it. "A little lie just compounds itself, Starbuck," he'd say. 

As much as I don't want to, I have to tell Mulder. 

XxXxXx 

Mulder is disappointed in me. I guess he's not as indiscriminate in his beliefs as I thought. He says he believes in psychic ability without a doubt, but not that Luther Boggs has it. And it's true, Boggs really blew it in the interview. But then he began singing that song. How did he know about it? 

I've obviously hurt Mulder. He thinks once again that I couldn't admit to my "hunch" because it was based on Boggs' information, and it would make me look like I believed in his ability. Mulder pointed out rather bitterly that it was expected of him, but not of cool, logical Dr. Scully. 

I'm not feeling very cool or logical. When Mulder knocked on the door of my room, what I was doing defied all logic. 

I was trying to reach my father. I was trying to be open to his presence. 

I've done a little reading on the subject and one theory is that everyone has some psychic ability. Boggs may be playing us, but there's something there. I can't quite believe I'm saying this, but I feel it. 

Mulder, on the other hand, is taking the opposite stance where Boggs is concerned. He's always after me to be open to extreme possibilities, and the one time I try, it's wrong. I find his about-face unnerving and unfair. 

Mulder says, "Be open to extreme possibilities, but only when they're the truth." What the hell does he mean by that? Only when he believes? 

Or maybe, he's just testing my conviction. 

Or, alternatively, maybe he's right and I should step away. Too much has happened, and I'm too vulnerable right now, perhaps a little _too_ open. 

He tried to make it easy for me. He asked me point blank if it had to do with my father, and I still said no. He must suspect that it has something to do with Boggs. He heard the song, and saw my discomfiture. Of course he'd suspect, even if he won't come right out and say it. Instead, he tried to get me to admit it, that maybe I needed to step away. 

No. I can do my job. I'm capable of being impartial. I won't desert Mulder to deal with this by himself. I'll see it through. I'm not a quitter. 

XxXxXx 

December 29 

Luther Boggs has even more to answer for now. He almost cost me my partner. 

I'm sitting at the hospital, waiting for Mulder to get out of surgery. It's been a couple of hours now. The shooter got an artery in his upper thigh and he'd lost a lot of blood before the ambulance got there. 

Too many losses. I can't lose Mulder too. 

We had another session with Boggs today, where he once again went through the "channeling" routine. I'll say this for him, he's consistent. He gave a vague description of the killer, and more than hints about where we could find him. 

It all happened so fast, but it seemed that what Boggs warned us about came true. "We see your blood on the cross," he said to Mulder. "Don't go near the white cross." 

Just as before, the "cross" was more symbolic than actual. I don't think I would have noticed it at all if not for Boggs' warning. It was only after Mulder was shot that I saw it. There was red paint spattered on it, which could very well look like blood. 

Once again, there can be two explanations for the warning Boggs gave. The most plausible is that he has an outside accomplice in this. He could very possibly have been to the docks where he sent us, though how could he remember in such detail after a number of years of incarceration? 

And how could he know Mulder would be shot? Just a lucky guess? He knew it was dangerous. Presumably he'd know if his accomplice was armed, or he might assume he was armed. 

I don't know. I don't know what to think. I need to argue this out with Mulder. 

He'd better not die. He can't die. 

XxXxXx 

The doctor came out a moment ago to say they were done and Mulder would be in recovery in a few minutes. Thank God for that. He's still listed as critical, but at least he's stable and the prognosis is good. I can see him in a few minutes for myself. 

The Lieutenant called while Mulder was in surgery; he wants to see me down at the station. I'll stop there to let him know how Mulder's doing and then I'm going to see Boggs. 

I'm going to find out what Luther Lee Boggs knows and how he knows it, once and for all. 

XxXxXx 

I may have blown the one chance we had with Boggs, all due to my own selfish wishes. 

I was allowed to see Mulder for a few moments in Recovery before I left the hospital. I've seen plenty of patients just out of surgery; hell, I've seem plenty of dead bodies in various stages. But seeing Mulder lying there, so very pale, affected me more than anything I'd seen. 

I understand why; this was Mulder, not some anonymous body or a patient I had no personal acquaintance with. Knowing that doesn't help. I wasn't prepared to see someone I know, someone I care about, in such a state. 

I'm not trying to excuse myself, but I was already pretty agitated when I got to the station house and found out that Luther Boggs did in fact have an accomplice toward the end of his spree. The Lieutenant told me that they never had enough evidence to prove it in court, but that they knew who it was. It was the man Elizabeth Hawley ID'd, Lucas Jackson Henry. 

So many thing became clear once I knew who he was, and his history. It seemed plain to me at that point that Boggs set us up. That this was his way of getting revenge on Mulder. He was a fake, I was sure of it. 

Armed with that information, I went to see Boggs. I let him have it. I really lost it. I had intended to go in there very calmly and lay out what I knew, to let him know that there was no chance for him. Instead, I went in with both guns blazing. I yelled at him. I threatened him. 

He sat calmly through my tirade, and as I turned away, he said, "But you're the one who believed me, Scully." It sounded like Mulder. When I looked, there was Mulder sitting in Boggs' place. 

I knew it couldn't be real. I hadn't slept in who knows how long, I was emotionally very vulnerable after all that's happened over the past couple of days. Luther Boggs could sense all of this, I'm sure, and he did his best to undermine me. 

I told him I didn't believe him, but my voice sounded unbelievably weak even to my own ears. And then I did the stupidest thing of all. I asked him -- practically begged him -- to let me speak to Ahab. 

For just a moment, I thought I was. But of course, it didn't last. 

He's like the Devil -- he tempts me with the one thing I want to get the thing he wants most in the world. To stay out of what he calls "that cold, dark place." He taunted me with it. I was weak. I tried to be like Mulder was, the first time he interrogated Boggs, but I couldn't. Boggs found my vulnerability and exploited it for all it's worth. 

I didn't promise, but I'll try to get a deal for him. I tell myself it's so we can save James Summers, but I know that's not the only reason. 

I called the hospital and they told me I could see Mulder for a few minutes. I'm not sure what I'll tell him. 

XxXxXx 

December 30 

No deal, though I did my best to make Luther Boggs believe that there was one. 

He didn't believe me any more than I believed him. He went through his usual channeling charade, and gave up Lucas Henry's location. 

But Luther said as I left, "Don't follow him to the Devil. Leave him to me." He may have saved my life, but maybe only so he could enjoy the power he had over me for a while longer. Or maybe he had one shred of decency left in him. 

When I went back to tell him we'd caught Henry, and to acknowledge that he probably saved my life, he promised me my father's message if I'd come to be his witness at his execution tonight. If I'm going, I'll have to leave pretty soon. They'll be in lockdown soon, preparatory to the execution. 

Mulder says he may be trying to claim me as his last victim. What it boils down to is this: do I believe Luther Boggs or not? And even if I do believe him, can I trust him to be telling me the truth? Will he give me my father's message, if in fact he can? 

Can I live with myself if I don't go and find out? 

There's so much I don't understand. I've always had faith that God would reveal His plan in good time -- that there were things we were meant to know, and things we weren't. Maybe I should put this into the latter category. If offered knowledge by the Devil, shouldn't we turn it down? 

Mulder said that Luther Boggs is the greatest of lies. But yet, I found some truth in what he said, beyond what he would have known through an accomplice. Or maybe I'm just too close to this to see the truth -- that he found out some things about me, and the rest is just smoke and mirrors. 

Does Mulder ever feel this way? Does he ever doubt himself about the things he's seen? He told me on our first case together that he had the same fears I had -- but how does he figure out what's the truth and what isn't? 

Of course I have regrets about my father. There are things I wish I could have said to him, and things I wish he could have said to me. But if he couldn't say them in life, what makes me think he could say them now? Does one's nature change after death, if the soul remains sentient? 

I've kept a lot from Mom and Ahab -- things I know they wouldn't understand. I'd tell them if a case was resolved in our favor, but didn't go into details. Neither of them pried. Ahab had plenty of experience with classified information during his active duty years, and by association, so did Mom. I've told them a little about my partner -- his background with the FBI, his reputation for brilliance -- at which my dad bristled and said, "No more brilliant than my little girl, I bet." 

That's a good memory. I'd forgotten he'd said that. 

But I've kept mum about the darker side of Mulder's reputation -- his nickname, his interest in the paranormal. I fall back on the original definition of the X-Files: they are unexplained, unsolved cases, that we are trying to resolve. 

I might have worked up the nerve one day to introduce Mulder to Mom and Daddy. 

I think Daddy would have liked him. They are not dissimilar. They are both men of honor and purpose. 

Maybe I should be asking not what Mulder would do in this situation, but what my father would do. 

I think I know the answer. I am, after all, his daughter. 

XxXxXx 

December 31 

I didn't go to the execution. Instead, I went to see Mulder at the hospital, and we kept watch together. I told him everything: what Luther said, how I responded, what he wanted me to do to get my father's message. I told him that I now believed that Luther could have come by all the information he fed to me by normal means \-- if he knew I was Mulder's partner, he'd have found out what he could. It wouldn't have been that difficult. 

Mulder then did an about face and questioned why I couldn't believe in the end. I had to admit that I was afraid. 

"You couldn't face that fear? Not even to get your father's message?" 

"But I do know," I said. 

"How?" Mulder asked. "How do you know?" 

"He was my father," I said. I knew what that meant now. 

Mulder nodded. I think he understood all along. 

end. 

* * *

Author's notes: I don't think I realized how much I love this episode until I watched it over and over again for this story. There are so many wonderful scenes, and so much foreshadowing (in retrospect) for episodes to come. Still, it wasn't an easy one to write, for a lot of reasons. I hope that I've done it justice. 

I'm guessing at the date Scully has her folks over for dinner. It could be any time from December 26 forward, since that's when Ahab made the family take down the Christmas tree. December 26 was a Sunday in 1993, so it made sense to make it that day. 

As to the attendees at Captain Scully's funeral...none of them are consistent with what we learn of Bill or Melissa later, so let's say they're cousins or something. Bill and Charlie are probably at sea somewhere, and Melissa's nowhere to be found. Maggie says it's "just family" there, but we could perhaps stretch a point and consider them family by virtue of their friendship with the Scullys. 

I've never understood Mulder's abrupt and total about-face about beliefs in this episode. You'd think he'd concede that Boggs has at least a little ability, though maybe he's just trying to keep Scully from going off the deep end. I'm with Scully, I thought he'd be pleased that she was open to extreme possibilities. I've tried to explain it the best way I can. I hate to think of him being ... inconsistent in his beliefs  <g>. Maybe this is also why Scully was so resistant for so long to believe anything else (such as what happens in "The Field Where I Died."). 

This is in memory of my own father. I am very lucky to have had him in my life for as long as I did, and I still hear him over my shoulder sometimes (especially when I forget to change the oil in my car!). I know he was proud of me; he told me so. I love him and will always miss him. 

Thanks for reading! 

feedback is welcome: you can find other stories by me at Kimpa's site: <http://www.kimpart.com/mlfic.html>   
  


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